Who Needs Who?
by QuiaVeritatis
Summary: In which circumstances require that paybacks can be Hell, indeed, for all involved. Donna and Martha are called upon to help The Doctor when he cannot help himself.
1. Chapter 1

Doctor Who

"Who Needs Who?"

In which circumstances require that paybacks can be Hell, indeed.

10th Doctor/Martha/Donna

Special Appearance from 9th Doctor

PG-13 (K-T)

"Doctor!" Donna tripped over a panel in the deck of the Tardis, and caught herself on the console. Donna heard a loud thud and immediately looked down at her feet. For an instant she thought she had fallen. Events in and around the time machine over the last few months had taught her that nothing was really as it seemed. Sometimes the thud came before the fall, sometimes after. Sometimes she fell with no sound at all. Donna took nothing for granted anymore. Reality was changeable. In this case she was still standing, but The Doctor was nowhere to be seen. His face had been directly across the console from her a moment ago. Now nothing. No one. The Tardis lurched again causing her to hang on and brace her knee against the console.

"Doctor!"

"Donna"

"Thank God. You scared me, you bloody twit. Where the Hell are you?" Donna leaned as far as she could around the controls, but she could not see The Doctor.

"Knocked down. I'm fine."

"Then get up. Bloody Hell, the Tardis is shaking hard enough to knock all the screws out. Turn it off before it comes apart."

Donna caught a glimpse of tousled hair and then The Doctor's eyes appeared over the screen. He did something with his hands and the Tardis stabilized. Donna tested it by taking one hand off and waiting. Then her other hand. Still standing.

"Brilliant. That worked. Why does it have to shake like that? Can't you get it new shocks or something? Can't we have comfy chairs? I have bruises all over my arse, and people are going to think black and blue is my natural color, and it so clashes with my hair. I'm going to need a helmet and knee pads if you don't fix this." Donna waited for the expected repartee, and when The Doctor was silent, she frowned, walking over to his side of the console. "Doctor? Are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?" Donna knew the change in tone from nag to concern would reveal more than she wanted to about her feelings. She also knew that nothing escaped The Doctor, and he already knew how she felt. He raised his head, a half smile quirked his lips, but the luminous eyes were distant. Something was wrong. Donna steeled herself.

"Maybe." He said.

"Cracked a rib?" Donna cracked, tilting her head, fishing for information.

"Nope."

"Cracked your head?"

The Doctor snorted and stood up straight. He had his right hand over his right side, right over the ribs. Did he have ribs? Donna frowned again.

"Then what? Do you need a …" she let that one go. What was she thinking?

"Let's get on with this." The Doctor smiled, "I'll be fine. Just a twinge." But his eyes darkened and Donna heard the edge of a lie. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Bollocks. You've gone a bit green around your mouth and pale around your eyes. I'm no doctor, but I know what that means. You're in real pain. You did break something, didn't you." Donna dared him to lie again.

The smile faded. "Well…." He dragged the word on and made it sound like a complete sentence. "Something hurts, but I didn't fall on anything. Everything regenerates anyway, so whatever it is will be gone soon." His face registered concern. "S'posed to, anyway." His cheek twitched. This was something new to him. After 900 years she could tell that he was feeling something quite different.

Donna took his arm and he didn't resist. This alone bothered her somewhat, but when he gasped and bent over with a loud groan she lost it.

"I'm calling 999. You are going to Hospital!" She picked up the mobile.

"NO!" The force of his response caused her to drop the mobile. "No hospital. They will poke me and then wait for me to die with glee so they can get on with the post mortem. No hospital."

Donna stomped her foot. "Sit down, you daft bugger. Then I'm calling Martha. She'll know what to do." She pushed him just hard enough to get him to sit in a console chair. Donna picked up the mobile from the deck and touched Martha's number. "Are we even on Earth? Aren't we? Weren't we going to a shop for shoes? I had to get you out of those red trainers. Are we in London? Donna glanced at the door, keeping one eye on The Doctor, she strode over and peered out. London. Check. When? She looked up and around, time looked right. They were in an alley. SoHo, perhaps. Excellent.

"Martha! It's Donna. You remember me from…well, from the Atmos thing. Right? Yes, he's here. But Martha, I think he needs a doctor. I know, I know, but this is different. I mean, I wish you would come. Please come. I'm not sure, SoHo, I think. Across from a shoe shop." Donna nodded and clicked the phone shut. She glanced up at The Doctor. He looked terrible now, his face was gray and his cheeks had a hollow look. His hair hung limp over his forehead and his eyes appeared to be twice their normal size. Something twisted inside her. A monster, fine. An alien army, ho hum. Bolts of energy weapons and swooping imminent Death from above, exhilarating. But Donna had not felt real fear until now.

Waiting for Martha was excruciating. The Doctor had not stayed in the console chair but had slid silently to the deck plates and lay folded in a fetal position. He lay very still, Donna knelt beside him. She rested her hand lightly on his arm, not wishing to hurt him, but wanting him to know she was there. She held her tongue. He was very obviously concentrating. She wouldn't disturb him for the world. Martha burst in making both of them jump. The Doctor groaned.

"I'm here! I came as fast as I could!" Martha dropped breathless to the deck and gently pulled The Doctor so he was lying on his back. Donna gasped at the changes in his face. He looked ghastly now. Pain had drawn deep lines around his mouth and his eyes were huge, nestled in dark cavities. He blinked at Martha and tried to smile, but the smile turned quickly to a grimace as he stiffened and tried to bring his knees to his chest again.

"Oh my God!" Martha breathed. How long has he been like this?" She turned stricken eyes on Donna.

"Half hour, that's all. It has happened very fast. I don't know what to do. I called you. I don't know…" Donna felt hot tears on her cheeks.

Martha quickly loosened his tie and unbuttoned his vest. The stethoscope appeared to leap into her ears and an instant later Martha was deep in concentration. Donna held her breath. Martha's shocked face turned slowly to meet her eyes. "He has _four _heartbeats," she breathed. "Four!" Martha shook her head as if to clear that thought and placed the stethoscope on The Doctor's chest again, then moved it around his abdomen.

"What?" Donna whispered.

"I don't know, but something is going on in there. I mean, I don't know what it supposed to sound like, but I do know he is only supposed to have two hearts, and the extra noise…can't be good. Here feel this…" Martha took Donna's hand and placed it gently on The Doctor's stomach. "Do you feel how tight that is? That's just wrong. What were you two doing right before this happened?"

Donna thought, "We were arguing…"

"No, no, I mean, were you on another planet, another time? Did he get doused with chemicals, or shot with a space ray, or bitten by a monster, or…"

"Yes, yes, I see what you mean." Donna thought. "We were on another planet. He was hanging from a rope. I mean we were escaping and the rope was the only way down and I got down first and he was following and the aliens were chasing us…"

Martha interrupted. "Yes, I'm familiar with that lot…but what happened to The Doctor?"

Donna took another breath, "The rope broke and he fell. He broke his ankle. I saw it swell up and turn purple. He touched it for a moment and I watched it as it healed before my eyes. He looked up at me and said, "Well then. Let's go." That's when I told him I was going to buy him some real shoes…running shoes with ankle supports. Not those flimsy trainers…" Donna heard her voice trail away.

Martha opened her medical bag and took out a syringe, filled it from a vial and tapped it with her finger

"No."

Both women looked down. The Doctor's lustrous eyes blinked slowly. With great effort he spoke, "It won't work," he rasped. "My body will neutralize it. Injecting me will only cause me to seize up. Don't."

Martha touched his cheek. "I have to do something. I can't bear to see you in such pain. I can make you sleep, then you won't have to suffer while we discover what is wrong."

"I know what is wrong."

"What?" Both Donna and Martha asked.

"Something is wrong with my regeneration." He winced and paused to breathe deeply. "It is not supposed to hurt…not this much. And there was nothing wrong with my hearts…or my liver."

"What can I do?"

"Nothing."

"Something! I can do something. Tell me!" Martha allowed the desperation to burst in her voice.

"Then get me to Hospital…"

"Hospital?" Donna shook with fury. "He told me _no_ Hospital when I told him that's what I was going to do! Wasted time! He could be in operating theatre by now! Daft, looney, stupid, foolish man!"

"No…not London. Help me get to the controls."

Martha gestured to Donna with her eyes.

Donna bit her lip. Of course. Her face flushed with shame as she helped Martha lift The Doctor to the console. His hands shook as he pulled the levers and toggles. With the last adjustment to the Tardis his face went white and his eyes rolled up. Martha and Donna let him slip slowly to the deck. Donna took his head on her lap as Martha straightened his body.

Martha looked at her. "At least he is unconscious."

Donna nodded. The Doctor's eyelid was struck by a tear. It did not even twitch.

Martha tried to smile. "We'll be there in no time at all."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Tardis became still and quiet. Martha and Donna were still and quiet as well. They knelt on either side of The Doctor's prone body, shielding it as best they could from the Tardis' violent shakes. Martha looked up first. She whispered. "I think we are here."

Donna sat up and pushed her hair back from her face. She glanced down at The Doctor, still unconscious. "Where is 'here'?"

"The Doctor's hospital," Martha answered. "This is where he sent us." She stood up and went to the door.

"Wait!" Donna caught her up and pulled on her arm. "We have to be ready for what is on the other side."

"I am _so_ ready," Martha answered. "He is failing very fast. He is barely breathing now. Whatever is wrong may kill him within hours. I don't care what is on the other side as long as it is a real hospital!"

Donna nodded, but she picked up one of the Tardis mallets and lifted it into a threatening over-the-head position. She gestured with her chin at the door. "I'm ready anyway." Martha raised an eyebrow and opened the door.

Facing them in the doorway was a cat. Or rather a cat-person. A fur-person, complete with whiskers and ears. Donna's mallet came down slowly to rest at her side. A female cat person, wearing a nurse's uniform stood there, her hands clasped demurely in front of her. At the sight of Donna's mallet the fur-person registered alarm, then puzzlement. She tried to look behind Donna and Martha, and when they did not move, she spoke.

"Where is The Doctor?" Her voice was a soft purr.

Donna stepped in front of Martha before she could answer. She shook the mallet a little. "Who are _you_, and where are _we_?" she demanded. She tried to sound confident and authoritative. She was aghast at the squeak in her voice. _Too much like a mouse_, she thought.

The cat person tilted her head. "You are at Hospital. I am Sister Feene. Is The Doctor with you? Why does he not come out? This is his Blue Box, is it not?"

"Thank God," said Martha. "Sister Feene, he sent us here so you can help him. He is very ill. Please send a gurney in. He must go directly to Emergency."

Sister Feene pricked her ears then swiveled them around. "Of course." She touched a device on her wrist and instantly a hovering platform appeared by her side. Moments later other beings, some human, some not, came running up behind her. Sister Feene pointed into the Tardis. "Bring out The Doctor at once. Take him to Diagnostics."

"You mean Life Support!" shouted Martha.

"Is it that serious?" Sister Feene asked, her cat eyes dilating.

"Yes! Please hurry!"

The Doctor lay tall and thin on a cold gurney in a big white room, wires and tubes snaked over him and into the walls. Donna turned around slowly, taking in the odd machines and technical displays. Martha had eyes only for her patient.

"What do the machines say?" she asked. "I can't read this language."

"We have no settings for Time Lords," Sister Feene answered sadly as she touched the screens. "We have settings for more than ten thousand species…but no Time Lords. No reason to, as there is only one and he didn't calibrate it when he was here last. I'm afraid the only person who can help The Doctor is The Doctor."

"And he is unconscious. If we bring him around, he may be able to read the outputs…" Martha gestured towards the screens.

Sister Feene nodded. I can stimulate him, force him…" She moved her hand over a knob. Something green flowed through a clear tube into The Doctor's veins.

He convulsed.

Donna grabbed for his legs. Martha held his shoulders. Martha screamed, "No! No drugs! They won't work! He told me they make it worse!"

Sister Feene stopped the drip. "I'm sorry," she said, shaken. "I didn't know."

"None of us know." Martha smoothed the sheet that covered The Doctor. His eyes opened wide. Martha said, "But you did bring him around. Doctor, tell us what to do. Tell us how we can help."

With great effort he said, "Stop…the…regeneration."

"How?"

The Doctor's eyes started to roll up again. Martha shook his shoulder. "Tell us how and we will do it."

"Moira." His eyes closed.

"What is Moira?" Donna asked impatiently.

"Who." Sister Feene tapped her pink nose. "She is his companion from long ago. He brought her here to live with us after the…incident. Perhaps he means that she knows how to stop the regeneration. I can have her paged…

"No need. I am here. I heard the Tardis arrive and…" A woman entered the room, limping heavily on a cane. Donna and Martha straightened as Sister Feene moved forward to greet her. The woman was middle-aged and slender; her was hair unnaturally white and bound in a single very long braid. Her eyes were green and her smile warm. She wore a white gown. Not a hospital gown nor a nurse's dress, but something soft and filmy. She touched Sister Keene in a cat-greeting then shuffled slowly to the table where The Doctor lay.

Martha spoke first, "My name is Martha Jones. This is Donna Noble. The Doctor is very ill. He seems to think you can help him. Please." Martha stepped back, taking Donna's elbow. The woman called Moira stepped up to the table, dragging her left leg behind her.

She leaned over The Doctor and touched his face. His eyes fluttered open for a moment, his lips twitched. To Martha and Donna she said softly, "He changes so completely. Everything is different…except something in the eyes. This one is so much younger than mine." She put her hand flat against his cheek and closed her eyes. "Yes. I can see what the trouble is. He is regenerating his internal organs without losing the old ones. Soon they will crowd his chest and his lungs will not be able to fill with air. He will suffocate."

"Oh, god, we knew that already you daft cow. We want to know what to do about it!" Donna ground her teeth together.

"How much time do we have?" Martha asked as she pinched Donna's arm.

"Minutes. We have to get him to the Tardis. She can stop the process."

"She? The Tardis is a _machine_…Blimey, Martha, we just got him _out_ of the Tardis. Now we have to get him in. Why can't anyone just DO something?" Donna hit the wall with her fist and kicked the table. "I can't stand it any more! He is going to die while you bloody bints just STAND there babbling about machines! He was _on_ the Tardis. Why didn't HE tell us this right away?" Donna kicked at the wall then sat on the floor with her head in her hands and had a good cry. She heard them wheel the table out and turn the machines off. A cool hand touched the top of her head.

"Please help me get to the Tardis with the others. I'm so slow. I could use a motorchair but there are none in this hall. This is the surgery. The patients are all prone. No one to sit in chairs, you see?"

Donna wiped her nose on her sleeve and looked up. "Sure. Right. I guess I want to be there too." Donna stood up and put her arm around Moira's waist. "Let's go."

In the Tardis Donna nearly dragged Moira to the console. "Please hurry"

"It's not the console we need. It's the deck plates. Do you know where his sonic screwdriver is?"

"Here." Donna bent to pick it up from the deck where it had fallen when The Doctor collapsed.

"I am going to open the Tardis. You cannot look. This is important. You will have to put the Doctor here on the edge; I cannot do it. But close your eyes. Do not look. There are many stories about looking back, aren't there? Orpheus, Lot's Wife…don't do it." Moira looked at each of them in turn. "Do not look."

"I don't want to become a pillar of salt." Donna helped Sister Feene and Martha lift The Doctor from the gurney and lay him on the deck. Moira knelt with the screwdriver, adjusted it, and pointed it at the plates. There was a loud popping noise and a flash of light.

"Close your eyes!" Moira cried.

In the darkness Donna listened. She heard Moira's voice murmuring. Was she speaking to The Doctor? No…to the Tardis. She was explaining The Doctor's illness to the machine. Donna squeezed her eyes together tightly. _Crazy crazy crippled woman. She is going to kill him with ignorance. He needs a shot, or time in a radiation chamber or some exotic medicine concocted from an alien plant that only grows on one planet in the whole Universe. That is how these things end up on the telly. Not talking to a machine._

Even with her eyes screwed shut, Donna knew when the Tardis answered. Intense light tried to fight its way in through her eyelids. She could almost feel groping fingers trying to peel the lids away. _I could open them just a crack…just a crack. Not looking, no, I am facing away from the action. I would just see the reflections. Yes, just a little._

The image of a pillar of salt came before her and she resisted the urge to look. Instead she listened more intently and heard The Doctor's voice. He was speaking to the Tardis now, or to Moira. He was talking, talking. _Not dead. Not unconscious. Talking. Maybe it's over, maybe it's time to look._ But no one called for all clear. The light tugged a little harder on her lid. _The Tardis wants me to look. She wants me to look._

Donna slowly opened one eye. The Tardis was filled with such blinding light her first thought was, _why look when you can't see anything? _Then ideas came to her, strange ideas, thoughts, other languages, concepts, images, faces, scenes, faster and faster and along with them the urge to do something, to understand. Faster and faster the light tried to get inside, pounding on her eye like it was a door. Donna shut her eye, gasping from the assault.

Then all was darkness. Moira's voice reached her ears. "It's safe now. You can open your eyes."

Donna opened them and immediately crawled to where The Doctor lay. He was still pale and drawn, but his eyes were open and he smiled at her. Martha knelt beside her.

"Is it over? It that all?" Martha's stethoscope snaked out over The Doctor's chest.

"I think so," Moira answered. "He will need to sleep for three days. There was enough damage done that he needs a regeneration, a proper one, of all his insides. The outside should stay the same."

"Why didn't he just open the Tardis as soon as he knew he was ill?"

"He couldn't" Moira sighed and leaned against the bulkhead. "It's a long story."

"We have three days." Donna managed a weak smile. "I'm sorry I said those hateful things. Really."

"I know." Moira smiled back. "I knew it the moment you said them."

Martha sat up straight. "I didn't. What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't." Donna sighed. "I wasn't thinking, I was feeling and all my feelings came out my mouth. It happens, though not as often as it used to." Donna inched her way over to sit beside Moira. "Tell me why he couldn't open the Tardis and do this himself."

"You peeked, didn't you?"

"Just a little. I didn't turn into salt."

Moira laughed softly. "No, it is not salt you will change into at all. You are salt now."

"Tell me."

Martha put her stethoscope away. "Yes. Please tell us." Sister Feene sat down and leaned against the bulkhead.

Moira reached out and laid a white hand on The Doctor's chest. "Well. Years ago when I was hiking in Scotland I heard this strange noise…"


	3. Chapter 3

Martha smiled and leaned back with a heavy sigh. "It's always like this when the crisis is over. There is this incredible relief, then a nasty nagging fear that more is just around the corner. I think I can't take it anymore, and then when it is gone I ache for it. There is nothing comfortable anymore."

Donna shook her head. "I don't feel that way. My life was rubbish before The Doctor and I didn't know it. Well, yes, I did know it, but I just wouldn't admit it. Okay, I admitted it, but I didn't want to take responsibility for it. It was rubbish. Now running and screaming with this lot seem normal to me."

Moira sighed. "My life was rubbish when I met him, too. My husband had just died from what is politely called 'a long illness' because no one has the courage to say the word 'cancer'. I took a hiking holiday in Scotland because that was the farthest away from hospital I could get. I parked my little car at the end of the road, shouldered my pack and just started walking.

"After half a day of walking into the mountains I heard this strange noise and when I investigated, I found a blue police box on the side of a hill. I stood there blinking for a while, sure that I had lost my mind when I heard the sound of a struggle. A few yards beyond the blue box was an enormous oak, and protruding from the trunk was the chest and shoulders of a man, waving his arms and beckoning to me."

Donna's eyes opened wide. "The Doctor was stuck in a tree?"

"More than just stuck. The tree was eating him…I guess"

Martha interrupted, "Surely you don't mean 'eating' him…"

"Why not," asked Moira. "Do you think trees are vegetarians?"

"Well," Martha said, "I have never heard of trees eating people. Not Earth trees anyway."

"Then you've never read Tolkien," Sister Keene said softly.

"Tolkien?" Martha puzzled. "No…I don't think so. I'd remember carnivorous trees, I think"

"I did," Donna said. "Read all of them. Fantasy books." She cocked her head at Moira. "Right? Hobbits and all that? Stuff he made up. Right?"

"Turns out Tolkien did a bit of time travel himself….but that is a completely different story," Moira answered. "This story is about The Doctor and the Tardis."

"So Hobbits were real!" Donna looked thoughtful, "Then Orcs were too. Ugh. And Goblins."

"And Ents and even Whomping Willows." Moira continued with a soft smile, "This particular tree was eating The Doctor as I walked up and he gestured for me to help him."

"Go on, then," Martha prompted.

"He told me to open my pack and pull out my ax. I had a little hatchet for chopping firewood. How he knew I had it I will never know. I didn't ask him. But I did what he said immediately. I raised the ax over my head like I was going to strike the tree. Moments later The Doctor was lying at my feet. The tree had spit him out. Just like that. If I hadn't been there right at that moment with an ax in my pack he would have been dead."

"How strange a coincidence is that?" Martha wondered.

"You haven't known The Doctor long enough if you still are asking that question," Sister Keene said.

"It gets stranger," Moira promised. "He was lying there and I could see that both legs were broken, just crushed. He didn't seem to be in any pain, but he was frustrated that he couldn't move. At this point I was certain I had gone mad and had stopped trying to reason it out. He said to me, 'you have to get me to the blue box over there' and I remember how he said, 'please' as if I had a choice.

"I reached down and grabbed him under the arms and dragged him to the blue box. He gave me the key and I dragged him inside. After that he used the screwdriver to open the plates. Before he did, he told me to close my eyes. I did, of course. I could still see the bright light through the lids, and I heard so many voices and had so many strange thoughts. When he told me to open my eyes, he was standing. Whole. No injuries at all. He was smiling and he said…  
"Thank you." The women looked over at The Doctor who was sitting up now and feeling his ribs. "Another crisis averted, this time with no help from me."

"I thought you said three days?" Martha asked.

"Days, hours, minutes…whatever," The Doctor smiled. "All better."

"And you really got eaten by a tree…" Donna gave Moira a sideways glance.

The Doctor nodded. "Well, that wasn't the me me. It was me, yes, but not me. I can't say it was him. But it really was. Right Moira?"

"Right," Moira laughed. "And you took me away that day. Though it wasn't you at all, was it?"

"Nope."

"Right." Donna said, a little doubtfully. "Then who was it?"

"I can show you. Would you like to see?" The Doctor extended his hand to Donna. To Moira he said, "You say she peeked?"

"She did."

"Then we can let her see. Take my hand"

Donna put her hand in his and instantly she was standing on a wooded hillside. It was cold. The sky was gray and there was a mist in the distance. Scotland. She turned around in a circle, knowing she was looking for a large tree, a blue box and Moira.

There. She watched from some distance as the small figure she assumed was Moira dragged a man into a blue box. Donna started running, knowing the Tardis might disappear at any moment. She reached the door just as the Tardis began to power up. Donna reached in her pocket for her key and entered.

"Aha! We have a visitor!"

Donna gaped. This Doctor was not at all like hers. This one had cut his hair very short, had much larger and more interesting ears, and his eyes were small and sharp, not big and soft. Beside him stood a very puzzled young woman. Donna knew it was Moira, but she was so different. Instead of long white hair, the woman wore her brown hair short, in a bob. And Donna couldn't help but glance at her legs. Strong and whole, a hiker's legs. Runner's legs. That made her remember the Doctor's trainers. No. This Doctor was not wearing trainers. Proper shoes, and a very battered leather jacket. He seemed very businesslike and a bit dashing, not like someone who had almost been a tree's dinner.

"Hello…Donna, isn't it? Welcome to the Tardis. We were just about to leave."

Donna immediately grabbed for some kind of handhold, she spread her legs wide in a stable stance and braced herself against the bulkhead.

The strange Doctor laughed at her. "So, you have been here before. I figured as much. Here we go."

He fiddled with the Tardis panel and Donna steadied herself as the expected shaking began. She had a moment of satisfaction as Moira was clearly caught unprepared, reaching for a steadying grip a moment too late. _It is strange to think of myself as the experienced one, now._

Donna felt a bit smug when she realized she was the first one to let go when the Tardis stopped shaking. _I have this hands down, no worries. _"Where are we, then?" she asked matter-of-factly_. _"Or should I say, 'when'?"

"Moira needs a little help," The Doctor explained. "I am going to help her. The Tardis just had to be reset."

"Oh, please," Moira blushed. "I don't mean to cause any trouble."

"No trouble," The Doctor said. "I owe you a favor. Thanks for getting me out of that tree."

"Let him," Donna said. "You won't get a chance like this again."

"But you have to turn away, Donna." The Doctor gave her a stern glance. "This isn't for you."

"Fine." Donna tried to answer with a civil tongue, but she couldn't help feeling a little left out, like when the teacher hands out cookies and there is one short and its you and the teacher asks is someone will share and there is silence and you feel like you've done something wrong but you haven't and its not your fault and it's not fair and why did this have to happen and why did it have to happen to me and I just want to melt into the floor…

"Donna? You look like you are miles away. Miles and years." The Doctor's voice was kind.

"Oh, sorry." Donna felt her face grow hot. "Just a diversion. I'm back."

"Don't look."

"Right." She closed her eyes and there it was again, that bright light from the Tardis. She heard Moira gasp and The Doctor murmur something to her. Donna tried not to think about that day in school but the images kept coming back.

"You can open your eyes now, Donna."

Donna opened them slowly but the light was gone. Moira stood close to The Doctor, he had one arm around her shoulders and tears had wet her face. He was looking down at her with infinite compassion, a look Donna had seen before on another man's face. Donna realized she wanted nothing more than to get back to her Doctor. She looked down at the Tardis deck plates. "All safe, then."

"All safe."

She felt all wrong, like walking into the wrong classroom after a trip to the loo. "This is all well and good, but I know that I am supposed to be sometime else. How do I get back?" Donna gestured to the Tardis. "How can you get me there when you are someone else? I'm sure it violates some kind of space-universe rule."

The Doctor just quirked his lips. "You can't go back until you have shown me you understand why you are here right now."

Donna raised an eyebrow. "I just wanted to know…" she tried to remember what she had wanted to know. Was it about the trainers? No, no…Oh, it was why he couldn't open the Tardis himself. _I peeked, though_. She smiled to herself. _I peeked. _

"Is that why I am here? Because I peeked? Because I was naughty?" Donna asked.

The Doctor hugged Moira a little tighter and said, "Others have looked into the heart of the Tardis and died. Some have looked and been reborn. Some have looked and gone mad. No one can say what will happen, except that something will change. Not a small change, either. When one has looked into the Tardis he or she is not longer the same. And I mean that very literally. Who am I to change you or anyone else? Do you see?"

Donna looked at the not-Doctor and the not-Moira. There were and were not the selves in the hospital. _How can that be? I am not the same person I was last year before I met The Doctor, and I probably will be even more different next year. _ Donna frowned, "We each change every second, we are constantly changing. How can we recognize each other over time? I know you are you and she is she, yet not. How is it I know?"

"Think about it." The Doctor moved his hands over the Tardis panel again. This time there was not shaking, no movement at all.

Donna opened her eyes. She was back in the other Tardis, the Tardis with Martha and Sister Keene and a different Doctor and a different Moira.

"That was strange." She said unnecessarily.

The Doctor tilted his head. "Do you understand now?"

"You could not open the Tardis while Martha and I were there. You would have killed us, or altered us beyond recognition. Yet Moira could open it for you…why?" Donna turned her eyes on Moira. "Why?"

Moira did not answer, but leaned over and grasped the hem of her dress. She pulled slowly to reveal her leg. Up and down what was once a very nice leg were savage scars and mottled misshapen lumps. Her leg looked as though it had been seized by something more vicious than a tree and chewed to pieces. Donna tried to keep her face calm and expressionless.

"We are always running, but one time, I guess it was the last time… I was too slow." Moira lowered the dress again to cover the leg. I had been wearing heels; we had been to a party. I twisted an ankle and fell. _It_ caught me…started to eat me…"

"What caught you?" Donna breathed.

"_It_ did…" Moira repeated. "Right after we dove into the Tardis. He…" she nodded at The Doctor, "opened the heart of the Tardis. I looked inside. _It_ fled from the light…well, no…actually, _it_ burned to a crisp in a flash of fire. Afterwards…well. I survived, but my leg was ruined. I don't regenerate."

The Doctor sighed. Donna looked at him and at his sad eyes. She asked him, "But Moira was not hurt by the Tardis?"

"No. And because of that I knew she could look at it again. She was the only one I was certain of. You and Martha…I couldn't risk it."

"But I peeked."

"Just a little. That meant you could take a side trip for a few minutes. You got to meet me again."

"And your trainers?" Donna looked at his feet.

"I learned my lesson." He squeezed Moira's hand. "Gotta move fast."

"Always running…" said Martha.

Donna thought about Moira's leg. She didn't laugh. "I need a pair. I know a place in Soho…"


End file.
